Turning Pages
by OnceUponALovelyDream
Summary: Best friends Peter and Wendy live just a few minutes away from each other in the quiet town of Storybrooke. When the rug is suddenly pulled out from under their feet Wendy will have to face the decision-her life? Or flight?
1. Chapter 1

**Part 1**

"Wendy!" Gwendoline Rivers turned around to see Peter behind her and grinned.

"Why are you out of school so late? Detention again?" She asked. He shrugged and smirked.

"Well you're coming out late too." Her friend pointed out, falling in step beside her.

"The difference is that I was helping make sets for the drama club while you were being told off for messing about in class-again." She smirked at Peter. "Who was it this time?"

"It was only Miss Blanchard." Peter shrugged, then wagged his finger in a spot on impression of Miss Blanchard. _"Peter Doyle you need your own personal revolving door for this detention room. You're such a bright kid, you just need to stop messing around."_ Wendy laughed and hitched her bag further up her shoulder as they walked. It was only another five minutes until she arrived home-Storybrooke was a small town and she lived fairly near the school.

"At least it wasn't Miss Crane again." Wendy pointed out. "You know what she'd say." Peter grimaced.

_"Peter Doyle you are a delinquent."_ They spoke in unison, having heard it so many times it was ingrained in their memories. _"Young boys should be polite and well mannered and you, Mr Doyle, are neither!"_ Laughing so hard they almost fell into each other, Wendy and Peter chattered the walk away, trying to decide if Peter really was a delinquent or if he was just 'misguided'.

When Wendy arrived home she found her youngest brother, Michael, colouring in the living room.

"What's that you're doing?" She asked him, peering over his shoulder.

"It's a picture."

"I know that, what's it of?" Wendy laughed and sat down next to him.

"It's you and me and Jonathan and we're all flying away because I don't like school." Michael, who had recently begun his first year of 'big boy school', calmly explained. "But Peter can come too incase you get lonely."

"I won't get lonely, I've got you and Jonathan." Wendy kissed his hair.

"Well I like him and I want him to come." replied Michael, still colouring in the stick figures.

"Okay then. Where's mum?"

"She's making tea in the kitchen and Jonathan's upstairs."

Wendy took her school things upstairs and sat on her bed with a sigh. She loved her family and she enjoyed school, but sometimes she just wanted to take Michael up on his offer to fly away. Storybrooke just never seemed right to her. The people were too nice, too quiet. She often dreamed of hopping on a train to Boston, but she doubted she'd ever do it. She'd just grow up here, become an art teacher at the school, get married to someone she'd known her entire life, grow old and die here. Storybrooke was her beginning and her end.

Peter waved Wendy goodbye and carried on walking to his foster home. His foster parents were great, really they were, but they were kinda uptight too. They constantly questioned him about what he wanted to do when he grew up and did he have a job in mind and did he want kids and blahblahblah.

Moodily, he kicked a can into the road. Thinking about the future always got him down.

Maybe that was why he and Wendy got on so well. She didn't like talking about the future either, but he knew in the back of her mind she was almost excited. Wendy was the sort of girl who loved being a kid, hated the process of growing up, but looked forward to being grown up-getting married and all that.

Peter? He just liked being a kid. Why would he want to grow up?

With a sigh he opened his front door and kicked off his shoes. Shouting a quick 'hello' to his foster parents, he ran up the stairs and collapsed on his bed.

"Peter!" His foster mother shouted up the stairs. "Do your homework now, please, we're going out for dinner."

Peter buried his face in his pillow with a groan. Sometimes he just wanted to run away and never grow up.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2**

It was Sunday afternoon and Wendy was still doing homework. She hadn't seen Peter-or anyone for that matter-since Friday and she was getting bored.

With a sigh she put down her pen and sat on her bed, opening the window and leaning out slightly, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath of fresh air. Her head was pounding, filled with maths and equations of ridiculous proportions. She could smell cherry blossoms and freshly cut grass, the breeze cooling her down.

Wendy was still sat there when it hit her like a bolt of lightening and she gasped, her body jerking so she almost fell out of the window.

She remembered.

Peter was in his back garden, laid down and enjoying being outside. The wind whipped through his hair and he smiled slightly.

Then he sat up.

"What the-"

Memories flew through his mind of another country centuries ago, a magical land, and his name, his real name.

"Peter Pan." He stood up, realisation dawning on him. "Peter Pan."

He grinned, then started running.

Wendy was already outside her house when Peter arrived, too excited to be out of breath.

"Wendy! Wendy!"

She grinned at him and placed her hands on her hips. "Figured it out then, Pan?"

"Oh the cleverness of me." He laughed and bowed. "Wendy Darling."

"Peter Pan." She gave a wobbly curtsey before embracing him.

Peter's smile faded even as he wrapped his arms around her. What now?

She had left him. She had left him to grow up and he had followed her, which is how they got caught up in this ridiculous curse in the first place.

Wendy seemed to remember too, because she pulled away from him and looked up, worried.

"Oh Peter-I'm sorry." He was silent. "I had to grow up-you know I had to. I couldn't stay with you forever."

"Yes you could." His voice was barely a whisper, backing away from her. "You could have stayed, we could have had adventures together. We wouldn't have had to worry about school or growing up and falling in love-" he broke off childishly, tears almost springing to his eyes.

"Peter," Wendy reached forward a little. "We-"

"Stop it." His words were harsh at first, but then he softened. "Please, Wendy. Don't say it."

Wendy fell silent. They both knew it anyway.

"Peter!" Looking up, Wendy and Peter saw Michael and John running out of the house.

"Peter you're here too!" Michael exclaimed, wrapping his arms around Peter's leg. Peter hugged John and patted Michael's head, laughing slightly too. Michael and John kept talking excitedly, but Peter glanced at Wendy who had wrapped one arm around her own waist, her other hand entangled in her cardigan sleeve wiping at her eyes.

"I'm going back to Neverland." Peter suddenly announced, cutting Michael and John off.

"What?" John's eyes widened. "But you can't-we've only just-"

"I know." Peter smiled sadly at him. "And that's why I need to go."

John looked conflicted. "Could-could I come?"

"Me too!" Michael jumped up. "I want to fight the pirates again-and see the Indians!"

"Oh, could we, Wendy?" John turned around to his sister, whose smile had a bitter edge.

"If you wish it." Then she hurried back into the house.

"Wendy?"

Wendy, who was laid out on her bed, wiped her eyes and sat up quickly.

"Go away, Peter."

"I'm sorry, Wendy. I really am." She felt him sit next to her, but she still wouldn't look at him. "I know you want to come with us."

Wendy tutted quietly at his characteristic cockiness, but her heart panged when she realised John and Michael were going back to Neverland again. With him.

"Wendy." She could hear his smirk. "One girl is worth more than twenty-"

"Peter!" She turned to face him, tears in her eyes. "I can't. I can't come with you and I don't want to come. I have to stay here and grow up."

"You don't mean that." He looked her directly in the eyes. "I know you don't. You don't want to grow up, not really."

"But I can't have you, Peter." She blurted out, her tears thickening her throat and blurring her vision. "That's why I have to grow up. Little girls don't fall in love. Not really. Not ever. I have to stay here and you have to go, before you grow up too." She smiled wanly. "You'd hate me for that."

Peter wasn't looking at her anymore. They had never said it out loud before, even though they knew it was there. They couldn't say it, for fear of breaking the spell that had them both entirely enchanted. Now the spell had been broken and he didn't know where that left them. After a while he spoke.

"Children fall in love all the time."

"What?" Wendy frowned. Peter looked at her and grinned his boyish grin.

"Children always fall in love. They fall in love like they fall over, like they fall asleep; they fall in love with everything and everyone every day." He was speaking with words beyond everything he was and yet he seemed more of a child than ever.

"Peter-"

"You know it's true, Wendy." He took her hands and whispered. _"Come away with me."_

She hesitated, her eyes darting around the room. Her school books were piled in one corner, her diary, she knew, was under her pillow. Pictures of her and her friends adorned the wall but all she could think of was that Peter was right in front of her and he was offering her a second chance.

"Okay."


End file.
